‘Cautious optimism’ as new Dutch coalition reverses research cuts

Dutch universities are “cautiously optimistic” about the incoming government’s plans for higher education, after years of uncertainty over funding and the future of English-only degrees.

The new coalition government has presented its governing agreement that includes plans to reverse previous cuts to funding by investing €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) into education and science and allowing non-Dutch-language programmes to continue. 

“There is a sense of relief,” Caspar van den Berg, president of the umbrella body Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), told Times Higher Education. “We have experienced two years of drastic cutbacks and with this new government we really see a change of direction.”

The new coalition, led by Rob Jetten and his liberal D66 party with the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), is a minority government. 

The planned changes come after a turbulent period for the higher education sector in the Netherlands. The Schoof cabinet, which collapsed in June 2025, was a coalition dominated by Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) that approved budget cuts totalling about €1.2 billion, prompting widespread protests led by students and academics in the country. 

The same government also pushed for the Internationalisation in Balance Act, originally proposed by the previous centre-right government led by Mark Rutte, which aimed to limit international student numbers and reduce English-taught programmes, requiring stricter tests and more Dutch-language instruction. 

The incoming government’s announcement means non-Dutch-language bachelor’s programmes in psychology, economics, and business administration would no longer need to be taught in Dutch, Van den Berg explained. 

He added that it would take time for the changes to have an impact on the university sector. “More important than the money is the change in tone set by the new government. For many people in universities, it feels like there is political recognition for their work,” he added. “But the actual test will be the implementation.”

Nuffic, a Dutch non-profit organisation that advocates for internationalisation in education, said the coalition’s decision to allow English-taught bachelor programmes to continue had “ended a critical debate which caused uncertainty among Dutch and international students and staff”. 

“The plans acknowledge the various benefits that internationalisation has to offer, while acknowledging and addressing possible limitations,” it added in a statement. 

Education Union AOb offered a more cautious take on the coalition agreement. “We are modestly positive, with much caution. We’re happy to see that our long years of protest are paying off,” said Arnoud Lagendijk, a geography professor at Radboud University and a board member of the AOb education union.

He added that the union remained concerned about cuts to social security and pensions and the possibility that funding could come with strict conditions. “The devil will be in the details of policy development and implementation,” he said. 

Lagendijk explained that working conditions at Dutch universities had been particularly challenging in recent years as universities implemented “significant cuts” in staff numbers, sometimes exceeding 10 per cent due to lower student numbers and higher costs. “This has resulted in vacancy and career stops, termination of most temporary contracts, cutting of student assistants, and threats of forced redundancies of permanent staff,” he said. “Workload and pressure has gone through the roof.”

The impact of the new policies would be mixed, he said. Conditional funding is likely to lead to more opportunities for researchers, particularly those in the “hard” sciences. “But tenured jobs will be further reduced because of dwindling numbers of Dutch and international students,” he added.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com